The movie that caused Jack Black to storm off set: “I should have died”
From a distance, Jack Black seems to be one of the most unassuming actors in Hollywood. If there is any opportunity to perform with him, chances are anyone will become his best friend through sheer charm alone in a matter of seconds. Black can also be an absolute workhorse behind the camera, but when he made the movie Tropic Thunder, he recalled it was the only time he had ever stormed off the set.
Then again, Tropic Thunder would always be a tall order for anyone to pull off effectively. Even though a lot of the humour and having Robert Downey Jr play a black man hasn’t aged well in the slightest, seeing this piss-take on the perils of buffoons in war is a lot more compelling than anything that Black had worked on previously.
For a comedy, though, there was a lot more credibility on set, with some of the greatest cinematographers of the modern era working to create some of the graphic war shots. Still, a lighthearted comedy movie directed by Ben Stiller should have been a walk in the park, right? Not exactly.
When talking to GQ, Black said trying to get to the set some days was miserable, saying, “The locations were remote. You’re saying, ‘You’re filming in Hawaii. That’s probably really chill’. But every day we had to get in a weird Jeep across really intense landscapes with mud spraying for like an hour and a half to two hours every morning. We would be slogging, screaming bloody murder up the mountains.”
Since most people had known Black for movies like School of Rock and had only recently seen his acting chops alongside Kate Winslet in The Holiday, he was ready to put himself through labour if it meant getting the right shot. Then again, that probably didn’t involve him getting the snot kicked out of him by a water buffalo in the middle of filming.
Even though every actor will tell you what a nightmare it is working with animals, Black had more reason to complain when he got launched while on top of the water buffalo in the middle of filming a scene. Since he had to be on top of it for so long, it had started to buck like a bronco and launched him into the air.
He didn’t have any bruises afterwards, but it would be a little while before Black returned, saying, “I somehow miraculously landed between two big boulders—a miracle. I should have died. Then Ben Stiller said, ‘Is everyone okay? Can we take it from the top?’. And I said, ‘Fuck you, we’re not taking it from the top. You get on the fucking buffalo.’ And I walked off the set, I thought justifiably. I didn’t think I was being a diva at all.”
While it took a minute for everyone to recuperate, Black’s near-death experience wasn’t in vain, either. Outside of the hefty payday that the movie had at the box office, Black’s performance is probably one of the highlights of the entire film, managing to outshine some of the best moments with Downey and Stiller in some spots.
If anything, that one scene just proved that Black could suffer for his art if he wanted to. He may need a little while to reassess himself once going through hell, but if you need someone to be thrown around, Black wasn’t one to say no to getting the best shot.
